‘Glee’: “The End of Twerk”

Sadly, Glee‘s story lines are coming directly from the headlines. They are pandering to a younger, pop culture savvy media demographic. The episodes of Glee, I remember seeing in the early days are a lot different than what’s being produced today. Last night, Glee paid tribute to this year’s most talked about hot button issue: Miley Cyrus. The episode was all about rebelling, twerking, and the freedom to express yourself. When I first heard about the episode, I said “Oh god, this is going to be a train wreck.” I was right.

Everyone has those days when you feel like breaking out in dance when no one is looking, but nowadays its very easy to get caught. Blaine happens to get caught twerking because Tina recorded it and showed everyone in the glee club. He becomes embarrassed, but Mr. Schuester feels that this is what they need to get into nationals. Mr. Schuester feels that this dance craze is certainly “not traditional, but its envelope pushing.” Soon after, he begins to break out in song and dance to Robin Thicke’s hit song “Blurred Lines.” The students seemed to be enjoying themselves by sexing it up and making it look inappropriate.

Kurt and Rachel decide to be rebellious and break out of their comfort zone so they get tattoos. Rachel tells Kurt she chickened out because she doesn’t want to ruin her body. However, when she goes to the bathroom, she pulls up her shirt and you see a tattoo on it and it says the word “Finn” on her side. It was a nice reminder that he is still with her.

Very often, Principal Sue tries to find a way to destroy the glee club. She and other school board members want to ban the popular dance craze of twerking because they feel it’s dance porn. Mr. Schuester goes to the school board meeting and gives the school board members a little dance history lesson. He talks about scandalous dance crazes, some as early as the Waltz. He says, “In twenty years, twerking will be a nostalgic dance.” It’s sad that that’s probably going to be true.

What saved this episode from the scrap heap was Unique’s touching rendition of “If I Were A Boy.” A few guys began harassing her in the boy’s bathroom. They take off her wig and throw it in the toilet. This song truly showed her vulnerability and emotion. The song was so raw that this song truly defines this character. It was about time they gave this song to her. The tears streaming down her face were real.

The scene where Rachel plays Fanny Brice in Funny Girl and sings “You Are Woman, I Am Man” was another one of the few scenes in this episode that worked. In the scene, Rachel and her partner make the song romantic. Rachel’s partner kisses her hand all the way to her shoulder. This iconic scene from 1968 worked much better than all the forced twerking.

Hopefully, this is the last we hear of Glee doing Miley Cyrus’s schtick. It doesn’t work and doesn’t make for a memorable episode.